


Dog Days Are Over

by misura



Category: Wedding Wars (2006)
Genre: M/M, Morning After, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 01:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13043379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: In which life-altering choices are made (and also someone sucks someone else's toes).





	Dog Days Are Over

Shel woke up to the sensation of someone sucking his toes, which wasn't really his thing, but he supposed it beat waking up to someone sucking something else only to have the sobering realization slash memory that you'd agreed to meet someone for breakfast ten minutes ago.

Toe-sucking, at least, could be bowed out of gracefully and with a minimum of hard feelings and/or favors owed - or so Shel figured until he bothered opening his eyes to see if the guy sucking on his toes this morning looked anywhere near as good as the guy who'd invited him over last night.

(In theory, they ought to be the same person, but if experience had taught Shel one thing, it was that theory and practice were two very different things, kind of like porn sex and sex sex.)

As it turned out, the toe-sucker was a dog, and it was more of a toe-licker than a toe-sucker.

On the plus side, though, 'hi, my name is Ted' looked every bit as good as Shel remembered. He also seemed to be solidly asleep and not in the process of having his toes licked, which made Shel feel justified to poke him awake.

"What - ?"

"Hi," Shel said. "Good morning. Remember me from last night?"

Ted's expression shifted from mildly put out to something making it hard to work up any kind of indignation over not having been warned about the dog. "Good morning. Shel, right?"

At the very least, Ted's grin suggested, there might be shower sex in the near future, possibly followed by a luxurious breakfast in bed.

Shel liked the way Ted thought. "That's right." On the other hand: "I think your dog's trying to eat my toes. Can you do something about that? If it helps, I promise I'll make it worth your while."

Ted blinked. The dog, obligingly, licked Shel's toes again, although Shel felt like there was an air of vague embarrassment about it now, as if the dog blamed him for tattling about Ted about their special private moment.

That was probably - make that definitely, just Shel's imagination, though.

"Please don't lick my boyfriend's toes," Ted half-said, half-asked.

Shel sensed a certain lack of firmness to his tone. The dog evidently agreed and huffed a bit.

"We talked about this before," Ted said. "We made a deal, remember?"

The dog whuffled. Shel wondered if it actually understood human speech. It seemed unlikely but then, his experience with dogs was a bit limited.

"Sorry about that," Ted said. "I think he likes you."

"Well, I know I don't go around sucking people's toes when I don't like them," said Shel. "So hey, fair enough. Not sure about that boyfriend thing, though."

Ted winced. An actual, honest-to-God full-body wince. Shel sort of wanted to hug him, because sure, he'd meant to point out that one great night together does not a relationship make, but even so, if Ted was up for it, Shel knew of no reason why they shouldn't try for a repeat performance, possibly preceded by dinner and a movie, or lunch and a walk in the park. "Sorry, I - wishful thinking?"

"That's a pretty good excuse," Shel said. "So sure, let's go with that. I mean, you're single, right?" Ted gave him a look that was - "Hey, I'm just asking." Shel raised his hands. "No offense intended. Just - if I'm going to be throwing and yelling things at you later, I'd rather have it be because you lied to me than because I just didn't ask."

"I'm single," Ted said. "Very single."

Shel decided to let that one go. If there was a story there, about a time when Ted hadn't been single - very or otherwise, he'd hear it when he'd hear it, hopefully from Ted himself.

"Cool. In that case, I'm interested. Very interested."

"I'm also a public prosecutor."

"Less interested now," Shel said. Ted's face fell. "And that was a joke. I'm just kidding."

"Not funny," Ted said, although he sounded a bit wryly amused.

"Bet you look almost as great wearing a suit as you do not wearing one." Shel didn't really have a 'type' as such, but he did have a healthy appreciation for a sharp-dressed man.

Well, or a good-looking guy in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, to be honest.

"I can think of one very easy way for you to find out," Ted said. "Lunch date, next Tuesday?"

"That's three days from now."

"Guys who can count are so sexy, don't you think?"

Shel shrugged. "If that's your way of telling me I'm sexy, thanks. It's a burden sometimes, but it's one I've lived with all my life, so I've kind of gotten used to it."

"Actually, that was my way of pointing you haven't said 'yes' yet. Or 'no'."

"To the lunch date? Sure, why not. You don't want to maybe do something together this weekend?"

Ted sighed. "Big trial on Monday."

"Be honest with me now. Are you a workaholic, or just very good at your job? Because I'm cool with the latter but the former might get to be the sort of problem I might feel obliged to try to fix by luring you to all sorts of parties."

"Are these the sorts of parties where I will meet attractive men who'll come home with me and corrupt my dog?"

If any corrupting had occurred, Shel was fairly sure it hadn't been his doing. "Absolutely."

"In that case, can I get back to you on that question?"

"Does it help when I mention the parties are optional either way?" Shel asked. "It's just - I'm a party planner, so parties are sort of like my job. Not that I'm saying you should expect to see me in your court room or anything."

"You don't think trials are fun?"

"I'm pretty sure they look way more interesting on TV than they are in real life," Shel said. "That's a 'yes' on the lunch date, by the way."

"Good." Ted smiled. "Then I guess I'll let you get away with saying my job is boring. For now."

"I never said 'boring'," Shel protested. "Hey, you think triple-checking the catering is fun?"

The dog barked.

Ted grinned. "Guess someone does. He probably wants his breakfast. You want some coffee? Since I'm going to the kitchen anyway."

"Coffee sounds good," Shel said. "Think you can spare some time for a shower, after?"

"I'm not _that_ busy. Just ... " Ted hesitated.

"You love your job, I love my job, and it's not fair for me to ask you to choose when you had no idea that you'd end up meeting a guy as great as I am last Friday. I understand."

Ted looked relieved. "Thanks."

"Any time," Shel said. "Now go feed your dog before it actually decides to eat someone's toes."


End file.
